Writing Tips for a Burnt Out Daydreamer

I'm just here trying to write Just a soul in a body Let's struggle together, shall we?

[burntoutdaydreamer]

Things That May Be Causing Your Writer's Block- and How to Beat Them

I don't like the term 'Writer's Block' - not because it isn't real, but because the term is so vague that it's useless. Hundreds of issues all get lumped together under this one umbrella, making writer's block seem like this all-powerful boogeyman that's impossible to beat. Worse yet, it leaves people giving and receiving advice that is completely ineffective because people often don't realize they're talking about entirely different issues.

In my experience, the key to beating writer's block is figuring out what the block even is, so I put together a list of Actual Reasons why you may be struggling to write:

(note that any case of writer's block is usually a mix of two or more)

Perfectionism (most common)

What it looks like:

You write one sentence and spend the next hour googling "synonyms for ___"

Write. Erase. Write. Rewrite. Erase.

Should I even start writing this scene when I haven't figured out this one specific detail yet?

I hate everything I write

Cringing while writing

My first draft must be perfect, or else I'm a terrible writer

Things that can help:

Give yourself permission to suck

Keep in mind that nothing you write is going to be perfect, especially your first draft

Think of writing your first/early drafts not as writing, but sketching out a loose foundation to build upon later

People write multiple drafts for a reason: write now, edit later

Stop googling synonyms and save that for editing

Write with a pen to reduce temptation to erase

Embrace leaving blank spaces in your writing when you can't think of the right word, name, or detail

It's okay if your writing sucks. We all suck at some point. Embrace the growth mindset, and focus on getting words on a page

Lack of inspiration (easiest to fix)

What it looks like:

Head empty, no ideas

What do I even write about???

I don't have a plot, I just have an image

Want to write but no story to write

Things that can help:

Google writing prompts

If writing prompts aren't your thing, instead try thinking about what kind of tropes/genres/story elements you would like to try out

Instead of thinking about the story you would like to write, think about the story you would like to read, and write that

It's okay if you don't have a fully fleshed out story idea. Even if it's just an image or a line of dialogue, it's okay to write that. A story may or may not come out of it, but at least you got the creative juices flowing

Stop writing. Step away from your desk and let yourself naturally get inspired. Go for a walk, read a book, travel, play video games, research history, etc. Don't force ideas, but do open up your mind to them

If you're like me, world-building may come more naturally than plotting. Design the world first and let the story come later

Boredom/Understimulation (lost the flow)

What it looks like:

I know I should be writing but uugggghhhh I just can'tttttt

Writing words feels like pulling teeth

I started writing, but then I got bored/distracted

I enjoy the idea of writing, but the actual process makes me want to throw my laptop out the window

Things that can help:

Introduce stimulation: snacks, beverages, gum, music such as lo-fi, blankets, decorate your writing space, get a clickity-clackity keyboard, etc.

Add variety: write in a new location, try a new idea/different story for a day or so, switch up how you write (pen and paper vs. computer) or try voice recording or speech-to-text

Gamify writing: create an arbitrary challenge, such as trying to see how many words you can write in a set time and try to beat your high score

Find a writing buddy or join a writer's group

Give yourself a reward for every writing milestone, even if it's just writing a paragraph

Ask yourself whether this project you're working on is something you really want to be doing, and be honest with your answer

Intimidation/Procrastination (often related to perfectionism, but not always)

What it looks like:

I was feeling really motivated to write, but then I opened my laptop

I don't even know where to start

I love writing, but I can never seem to get started

I'll write tomorrow. I mean next week. Next month? Next month, I swear (doesn't write next month)

Can't find the time or energy

Unreasonable expectations (I should be able to write 10,000 words a day, right????)

Feeling discouraged and wondering why I'm even trying

Things that can help:

Follow the 2 min rule (or the 1 paragraph rule, which works better for me): whenever you sit down to write, tell yourself that you are only going to write for 2 minutes. If you feel like continuing once the 2 mins are up, go for it! Otherwise, stop. Force yourself to start but DO NOT force yourself to continue unless you feel like it. The more often you do this, the easier it will be to get started

Make getting started as easy as possible (i.e. minimize barriers: if getting up to get a notebook is stopping you from getting started, then write in the notes app of your phone)

Commit to a routine that will work for you. Baby steps are important here. Go with something that feels reasonable: every day, every other day, once a week, twice a week, and use cues to help you remember to start. If you chose a set time to write, just make sure that it's a time that feels natural to you- i.e. don't force yourself to writing at 9am every morning if you're not a morning person

Find a friend or a writing buddy you can trust and talk it out or share a piece of work you're proud of. Sometimes we just get a bit bogged down by criticism- either internal or external- and need a few words of encouragement

The Problem's Not You, It's Your Story (or Outline (or Process))

What it looks like:

I have no problems writing other scenes, it's just this scene

I started writing, but now I have no idea where I'm going

I don't think I'm doing this right

What's an outline?

Drowning in documents

This. Doesn't. Make. Sense. How do I get from this plot point to this one?!?!?! (this ColeyDoesThings quote lives in my head rent free cause BOY have I been there)

Things That Can Help:

Go back to the drawing board. Really try to get at the root of why a scene or story isn't working

A part of growing as a writer is learning when to kill your darlings. Sometimes you're trying to force an idea or scene that just doesn't work and you need to let it go

If you don't have an outline, write one

If you have an outline and it isn't working, rewrite it, or look up different ways to structure it

You may be trying to write as a pantser when you're really a plotter or vice versa. Experiment with different writing processes and see what feels most natural

Study story structures, starting with the three act structure. Even if you don't use them, you should know them

Check out Ellen Brock on YouTube. She's a professional novel editor who has a lot of advice on writing strategies for different types of writers

Also check out Savage Books on YouTube (another professional story editor) for advice on story structure and dialogue. Seriously, I cannot recommend this guy enough

Executive Dysfunction, Usually From ADHD/Autism

What it looks like:

Everything in boredom/understimulation

Everything in intimidation/procrastination

You have been diagnosed with and/or have symptoms of ADHD/Autism

Things that can help:

If you haven't already, seek a diagnosis or professional treatment

Hire an ADHD coach or other specialist that can help you work with your brain (I use Shimmer; feel free to DM me for a referral)

Seek out neurodiverse communities for advice and support

Try body doubling! There's lot's of free online body doubling websites out there for you to try. If social anxiety is a barrier, start out with writing streams such as katecavanaughwrites on Twitch

Be aware of any sensory barriers that may be getting in the way of you writing (such as an uncomfortable desk chair, harsh lighting, bad sounds)

And Lastly, Burnout, Depression, or Other Mental Illness

What it looks like:

You have symptoms of burnout or depression

Struggling with all things, not just writing

It's more than a lack of inspiration- the spark is just dead

Things that can help:

Forget writing for now. Focus on healing first.

Seek professional help

If you feel like it, use writing as a way to explore your feelings. It can take the form of journaling, poetry, an abstract reflection of your thoughts, narrative essays, or exploring what you're feeling through your fictional characters. The last two helped me rediscover my love of writing after I thought years of depression had killed it for good. Just don't force yourself to do so, and stop if it takes you to a darker place instead of feeling cathartic

[burntoutdaydreamer]

Hard Lessons I’ve Learned From Writing My First Full Novel

So I’ve begun the dreaded query process (I’ll probably post about that experience at some point — here’s hoping I actually gain insight worth sharing) and I thought I would use this moment to share some reflections for anyone who’s in the process of writing their first book.

For reference my book has gone through 4 drafts and 3 beta readers over the course of… 8 years… (god help me). But I can say with certainty that this process has significantly improved my writing skills and my current manuscript is like 10x better than it originally was (and I’m not the only one saying this), so regardless of the outcome of my queries, it was worth it. But lord did I need to take some hard to swallow pills to get to this point:

Readers are never going to see exactly what I envision in my head. If I try to describe everything exactly as I imagine it, it’s only going to hurt the story

Your most brutal beta reader is probably your best one. Admittedly that doesn’t always make the feedback easier to hear, so it doesn’t hurt to have a nice one, if only for morale purposes

If your beta readers are saying there’s a problem, there’s a problem. They might not be right about what the problem is, but that doesn’t change the fact that there is a problem and it’s on you to fix it

The story is going to change a lot as it moves from initial idea to finished project—to the point where it’s almost unrecognizable. That’s not a bad thing. Just means that I have to be willing to let ideas for scenes go, no matter how crucial they were to the story in the initial stages

I will never stop loving a story that I feel very passionately about, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get bored as hell after working on it for several years. 

If I’m having a significant amount of trouble writing a particular scene, there’s probably a reason (i.e. it’s a bad scene or I’m going about it the wrong way)

I might have been a bit too ambitious with the project I took on. Like, it may be possible that having six POV characters in a complex political intrigue-type plot taking place In a fantasy world that has four major countries each hosting multiple cultural/ethnic groups may have been a bit too much for a relatively novice writer (And as I’m writing its, it occurs to me that this may be the reason the story took 8 years to get to this point). But, fuck it, we ball. 

The number one thing I need to work on as a writer is LEARNING HOW TO BE MORE CONCISE LIKE GODDAMN IT half of the time spent on my final draft was just cutting out words to get it within industry standards so I don’t get auto-rejected

I will face a significant amount of setbacks and discouragement from all kinds of different sources along the way, but I am passionate enough (or, more accurately, stubborn enough), to push through them as long as I show myself enough kindness and patience in the process

There will be times when I can write a significant amount in a short period of time, but that’s not something I can count on to make consistent progress. When they say slow and steady wins the race, they’re not fucking kidding. Tiny, daily goals are a necessity for massive projects like these.

Antidepressants are a god send and anyone who says writers shouldn’t take them because they kill your creativity can kiss my ass

And lastly, and most importantly: though it may have taken a lot longer than I would have liked, I did it. I am capable of writing a full-length novel, and seeing it through to the end.

Hope this helps someone <3

Writing a novel is hard, but I know you (yes you) are capable of it, just as I was

[burntoutdaydreamer]

Felt cute, might do some bloodletting later

[gumgumprisonshank]

Not to harp too hard, but, are you really lazy? Or are you living with forms of neurospicy that make executive function in general difficult and consistent self care routines specifically almost impossible to keep, in a society designed to teach you that only certain human forms are allowed to be found sexual and heavily geared towards teaching everyone, regardless of physical appearance, that *their appearance, specifically,* is unacceptable for nebulous, arbitrary reasons, in a country rapidly falling both apart *and* into a fascist, oligarchic hellscape, in a world rapidly being exploited to death by shortsighted capitalists out to squeeze every last penny they can out of the planet before it inevitably bursts into flames to purge the human infection?

[saturn-s-ghost]

I have no outline tho, just vibes

[periodicallypurple]

Thought this might help others who struggle when writing. I know I get in my head too much.

[political-us]

[gossipgurlingursht]

An actual news source:

The secret to Baltimore's extraordinary year

This April, Baltimore saw five homicides.

[jeanjauthor]

It's as if investing positively in social welfare actually has an even stronger positive impact, imagine that...

[benignfeminine]

It's hard to get into writing at first. Until you stop holding yourself to ridiculous standards. Huge difference. Consistency is still a struggle. But it's much easier to actually write when you allow yourself to make mistakes and be bad at it.

[ibajo256]

[corvusalbus93]

[bookishdiplodocus]

Word counts and writing speed

Notoriously prolific writer Brandon Sanderson said: "The average writing speed for a writer is between 200 and 500 words an hour." (He was talking about writing new prose in a story.) "The fast writers I know go at about 1,000 words an hour. And that is not a ridiculous speed. A lot of pros I know do between 750 and 1,000 rough draft words in an hour."

Huh.

Source: "How to Write a 100k Words a Year", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIze473qjJ0

[bookishdiplodocus]

Adding to this, this is what he says about writers who write slower:

"If you're outside those bounds [of 200-500 wph], it's OK. Everyone is different. But it's a pretty wide range. And my experience has been that if you're well below that, that you can speed it up with good habits and good practice. Good habits and practice will be things like learning to turn off the [games on your phone] and email and social media and learning to focus on your storytelling. And if you have real trouble with that, getting a notepad and going outside and writing longhand or things like that to shake your need to be checking your email every few minutes.

If you're well below--if you're at like 50 words an hour, than you are spending too much time on the email OR you are worrying about each word WAY too much, to an extreme amount, which does happen as well. One of the things you want to learn to do, is to write consistently. One of the problems that you run into if you focus on each word is: you aren't good enough yet to focus on each word. To get better at writing, you're gonna have to get to the point where you're writing big chunks of writing and then trying to teach yourself to do things as you're doing that.

It's really good as a writer to keep in the back of your mind, "I am usually a bit too passive in my voice. Let me practice not writing with as much as a passive voice." That's a good thing to do, but you need to have written enough to know that's consistently a problem in yourself, and I would recommend that you do the revision after, because then you'll see what you're doing by habit. If you've got a whole book you can look at, and you can go through that book and be like, "I'm gonna cut all the passive voice from this book", that will teach you more about not using the passive voice than thinking about every sentence while you write it. In fact, after doing that whole book revision, the next book you write, you will have internalized already some of those things and you'll just stop doing it, by custom, just by writing.

So, you need to turn off the internal editor and you need to turn off [the games on your phone]."

"Suppose you write 250 words an hour. To write 100,000 words a year, you need to write for 8 hours a week."

[byoldervine]

Going back to old writing is either just like:

1. “Who wrote this masterpiece?! It was ME?!”

2. “Who wrote this absolute shit? Oh fuck my life, that was me, wasn’t it?”

[melodicwriter]

[makingsenseofwhathappened]

Stop Gaslighting Yourself

Hey Tumblerz, I wanted to open up a classic topic today that I find myself thinking about a lot: good old Self-Blame. Especially the kind that shows up after someone crosses a line.

To start off, I hope you have a couple minutes to check out this short sketch, a truly hilarious comedian's take on the subject: If A Robbery Report Was Treated Like A Rape Report.

I found Cynthia Kao's take here brilliantly cutting and hilarious (admittedly a bit disturbing, too). I think it nails the kind of absurdity that can send us into what I sometimes think of as 'self-gaslight' mode. Which is really, really, really common.

This state of mind makes sense because we do live in a world, a quietly coercive system, often designed to make the "blame game" of justice go flip mode on us.

If you're like me, you might find yourself thinking things like:

“Did I give the wrong impression?” “Maybe I shouldn’t have smiled.” “Was that... actually harassment?” “Am I just making a big deal out of nothing?”

If any of this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. And there’s a reason.

Blaming yourself can weirdly feel safer than facing how badly you were treated. The thinking goes: if it was your fault, then maybe you’re still in control after all - you can do better or fix it next time - and you aren't powerless to stop it from happening again.

That's comforting psychology. A mindset I've sunk into myself many times. But here’s the thing you have to remember: you simply were not the problem, you just weren't - you weren’t the one with the power in that situation.

Sadly, a lot of people who’ve been harassed don’t even recognize it as harassment at first. Work and pop culture train us to smooth things over, give the benefit of the doubt regardless of context, be chill, act “professional," on and on.

What I'm trying to say is, your reaction to self-gaslight makes sense. But that doesn’t mean you deserved what happened. And you don’t have to carry the guilt just because the system made it easier to blame yourself than to hold someone else accountable.

By the way, I have to say here that it’s okay if you’re still untangling how it made you feel. That’s not weakness, it’s actually your wisdom in progress.

Just know you’re not crazy or overreacting. You’re just living in a world that doesn’t always want to believe you. But some of us do. And we’re not going anywhere.

That went longer than I expected 🤓 ☺️. Thank you for reading.

Much love.

[brimstonebxtch]

[burntoutdaydreamer]

Hi Happy New Year! I was wondering if books that are set in the real world post 2020 Covid-19 should mention the virus and changes that happened in the world? Or could I choose not to mention it if it doesn't really affect my story or setting?

Okay so I’m totally answering this several months after you asked but wiejvhwjrgkf here goes

I’d say mention it wherever it naturally comes up. If your story isn’t based in 2020 or during the pandemic it’s not necessary to answer it per se but I wouldn’t pretend like it never happened either. Of course, if it’s not relevant to anything going on, or your characters, or anything like that then there’s no need to go out of your way to bring it in either. Go with your gut. If covid is something that would come up if this were a real story you were telling others, then mention it; if not, then don’t

[escapismsworld]

📍Church of the Gesù, Rome

The Church of the Gesù, constructed between 1568 and 1584, is considered one of the finest examples of Roman Baroque architecture.

[just-a-humble-garbagecan]

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